Randox is investing £30m to fast-track a new COVID-19 testing lab, and is hiring for 200 new science and engineering positions.
A safe and reliable vaccine for the COVID-19 virus could still be a year or more away, and if the lockdown is to be safely eased before that then we'll need a massive national testing strategy. Any plan to lift the lockdown will require mass-testing of the population and a reliable way to track and trace those who have been infected or exposed.
Global medical diagnostics firm Randox has now announced that it's spending £30m on a new specialised COVID-19 testing lab based in the Randox Science Park in Antrim. The company is one of those running COVID-19 tests through the UK's national testing programme, and the new lab is being rushed into service to expand testing capacity.
Dr Peter FitzGerald, Managing Director of Randox Laboratories, commented: "The national testing programme, as a collaborative effort by government and various partners within industry, has increased testing capacity at an unparalleled speed – by installing a network of drive-through testing centres, introducing home testing kits, and now, opening this specialised lab at the Randox Science Park in Northern Ireland."
To support the opening of the new lab, Randox is now hiring for 200 new positions at the Randox Science Park facility. They're looking for people with Science, Engineering, and Manufacturing backgrounds to help in testing COVID-19 samples and building new diagnostic analysers to improve the company's testing capacity.
"By accelerating the build schedule for new specialised equipment, and hiring 200 associated workers across Science, Engineering and Manufacturing we will further enhance the government’s national testing scheme, as well as facilitate testing more broadly across the general populace," said Dr Peter FitzGerald.
Source: Written based on press release
